Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman and Lindahl 8-29-25
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Scott Friday with Craigman and Linda All in a bud
- 0:02Speaker 1: Light Football Friday. But, like the official beer sponsor of
- 0:04Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos, remember to enjoy responsibly. Jeff Lagwall time
- 0:09Speaker 1: here on a Friday afternoon. Jeff Legwald's appearance is brought
- 0:13Speaker 1: to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBW
- 0:16Speaker 1: Local sixty eight. You start with a job, you end
- 0:18Speaker 1: with a career, all.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Right, Jeff.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Micah Parsons forty seven point two million dollars average annual
- 0:26Speaker 1: value from the Green Bay Packers. The market has been reset,
- 0:30Speaker 1: and oh my, has it ever been reset? Clearing TJ.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Watt by six million dollars per year. George Payton saying
- 0:38Speaker 1: this week that conversations are ongoing, but he's keeping them
- 0:42Speaker 1: between all parties involved right now. When it comes to
- 0:45Speaker 1: the Nick Benito thing, Uh, Jeff, there's there's a lot
- 0:49Speaker 1: of inns, a lot of outs, a lot of what
- 0:50Speaker 1: have us. When it comes to what Benito is going
- 0:54Speaker 1: to do? How do you think this is going to go?
- 0:58Speaker 3: Well?
- 0:58Speaker 4: I still believe they both want a deal in Denver,
- 1:03Speaker 4: unlike the situation in Dallas with Micah Parsons. Also, you know,
- 1:08Speaker 4: I spoke to Nick a week or so ago when
- 1:11Speaker 4: he said he believed the deal would get done and
- 1:14Speaker 4: that good progress had been made.
- 1:16Speaker 3: He also said, I just leave that all to my agent.
- 1:19Speaker 4: So you're not having this, uh, the team refusing to
- 1:24Speaker 4: talk to the agent, as was in the mic.
- 1:26Speaker 1: Out, So Greg Pener didn't call Nick Benito directly to
- 1:30Speaker 1: negotiate a contract with him.
- 1:32Speaker 3: No, not that I know of. At least Nick doesn't
- 1:35Speaker 3: know that either.
- 1:36Speaker 2: OK.
- 1:37Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they're okay there, But you know, I
- 1:39Speaker 4: think obviously the Broncos will will always look at it
- 1:43Speaker 4: from a team perspective and what is truly guaranteed at signing?
- 1:48Speaker 4: And you know, I bounced this off a couple of
- 1:50Speaker 4: people today, and most team people I talked to see
- 1:54Speaker 4: this as a three year deal with one hundred and
- 1:56Speaker 4: twenty million dollar guaranteed, you know, overall, and then you know,
- 2:02Speaker 4: after that then things are not quite as guaranteed. But
- 2:06Speaker 4: still it's huge money and it's what everybody thought. Micah
- 2:10Speaker 4: Parsons was going to put the bar where the bar
- 2:14Speaker 4: will be for edge rushers and everyone else will get
- 2:17Speaker 4: slotted until you play better than Michaeh Parsons or the
- 2:21Speaker 4: cap grows enough that, you know, the natural progression takes place.
- 2:26Speaker 4: So Benito probably gets fit in there under there somewhere
- 2:30Speaker 4: where that is is probably what's up for debate right now.
- 2:33Speaker 1: Yeah, Leggy, this is and this this was me theorizing
- 2:37Speaker 1: on it yesterday, seeing the way that the market was
- 2:39Speaker 1: reset with that Parsons at forty seven million dollars AAV.
- 2:43Speaker 1: But my theory being that if you were to do
- 2:47Speaker 1: the deal now he gets paid in the Trey Hendrickson
- 2:50Speaker 1: Nick Bosa neighborhood of between twenty nine and thirty four
- 2:54Speaker 1: million dollars per year. But if he waits bets on himself,
- 3:00Speaker 1: replicates his production from twenty twenty four here in twenty
- 3:04Speaker 1: twenty five, then he moves into the Miles Garrett TJ.
- 3:08Speaker 1: Watt neighborhood, where you start talking about maybe forty million
- 3:12Speaker 1: dollars per and that to me is kind of what
- 3:15Speaker 1: the the span of what the market could look like
- 3:19Speaker 1: for Nick Benito.
- 3:21Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
- 3:23Speaker 4: I mean nobody, you know, I don't know anybody, probably
- 3:25Speaker 4: including Nick and his representatives. They'd certainly gladly take a
- 3:29Speaker 4: deal that resets everything. But I don't think anyone involved
- 3:33Speaker 4: went into this thinking they have to make Nick Benito
- 3:37Speaker 4: the highest page ad dresser. Ely, I don't think that
- 3:40Speaker 4: was like the starting point where it was with Von Miller,
- 3:43Speaker 4: for example, when when von did his deal, which seems
- 3:47Speaker 4: ancient now is the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history.
- 3:51Speaker 3: But so I think they've they've had good groundwork.
- 3:57Speaker 4: You know, in all of these deals, the Broncos have
- 4:00Speaker 4: done minors, you know, Sutton, Zach Allen, you know, all
- 4:05Speaker 4: of them have have had the the right dollar figures.
- 4:11Speaker 4: You know, they haven't really done the whole let's lowball
- 4:15Speaker 4: and start from there. Uh, They've they've gotten you know,
- 4:19Speaker 4: patser Tan, They've they've put the money where where it's
- 4:22Speaker 4: enticing to the player.
- 4:24Speaker 3: And I think they've tried.
- 4:25Speaker 4: To do that and we'll try to do that with
- 4:27Speaker 4: with Benito, and I think really they're they're down to
- 4:31Speaker 4: how much money does he get when he puts the
- 4:33Speaker 4: pen to paper, And that's always the last thing that's
- 4:36Speaker 4: agreed to on all of these, including you know Zach
- 4:39Speaker 4: Allen for example, in training camp.
- 4:42Speaker 5: All right, Jeff, I heard some of your story about
- 4:44Speaker 5: you know, the Sam Ellinger and why it chose to
- 4:46Speaker 5: come here and all that, and you know, I heard
- 4:49Speaker 5: you tell the Morning guys yesterday you confirmed one other
- 4:51Speaker 5: team at the time that was willing to offer him
- 4:54Speaker 5: a spot, but it was not number two, and then
- 4:56Speaker 5: in the press or it was number two or whatever. Really,
- 5:00Speaker 5: it's all semantics. Why does a guy like Sam Ellinger
- 5:02Speaker 5: want to be here? No matter the position?
- 5:06Speaker 4: Certainly Andy make more money at his experience level, which
- 5:10Speaker 4: is you know, year four or five if you're on
- 5:14Speaker 4: an active roster all year, But the gap isn't nearly
- 5:18Speaker 4: as much as it used to be for a player
- 5:21Speaker 4: of his experience, so you can recoup some of the
- 5:25Speaker 4: money you couldn't five years ago. And I think the
- 5:29Speaker 4: one time you sort of have a choice in this
- 5:31Speaker 4: type of thing, this is one of the examples where
- 5:35Speaker 4: he has a choice. He can pick where he wants
- 5:39Speaker 4: to go. And if he doesn't think from a football perspective,
- 5:45Speaker 4: it's as good. You know, is it better to be
- 5:47Speaker 4: on a fifty three man roster for a bad team
- 5:50Speaker 4: where you don't think you maybe you won't be as coached.
- 5:53Speaker 3: As well as where you were.
- 5:55Speaker 4: And I think this is more a testament of he's
- 5:58Speaker 4: got a shot, I think be a number two here
- 6:02Speaker 4: down the road and he's going to get coached by
- 6:06Speaker 4: Davis Webb, which people just saw a Zach Wilson turn
- 6:11Speaker 4: this into a six million dollar deal. You know, I
- 6:14Speaker 4: called it, you know, one year in quarterback rehab and
- 6:18Speaker 4: you got a six million dollar deal from the Dolphins.
- 6:20Speaker 4: So I think all of the components, UH just made
- 6:25Speaker 4: it attractive for him.
- 6:26Speaker 3: And you know, I think honestly.
- 6:30Speaker 4: He will have a chance to be the number two
- 6:32Speaker 4: next year and moving forward if things go the way
- 6:35Speaker 4: they want.
- 6:36Speaker 1: Yeah, quarterback culture strong here in Denver. Jeff Legwald joins
- 6:39Speaker 1: us on a butt light football Friday. Jeff Legwald's appearance
- 6:42Speaker 1: is brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
- 6:44Speaker 1: Workers IBEW Local sixty eight. Start with the job, you
- 6:47Speaker 1: end with a career, Jeff. Week one, it's it's now
- 6:51Speaker 1: upon as it officially starts on Monday. What is the
- 6:55Speaker 1: Broncos injury situation that you are closely monitoring or I
- 7:00Speaker 1: suppose injury situations that you were monitoring the closest as
- 7:05Speaker 1: we go into game week.
- 7:07Speaker 4: Well, you know, obviously the Mems. You know, cham Payton
- 7:11Speaker 4: has said he'll be back at practice Monday. But you know,
- 7:13Speaker 4: I always reserved judgment till I actually see the guy
- 7:16Speaker 4: back at practice. So I think certainly that's one and
- 7:21Speaker 4: probably doesn't have a lot to do with you know
- 7:24Speaker 4: what people would get excited about. But he the head
- 7:28Speaker 4: coach wants a fullback in uniform for the opener, and
- 7:31Speaker 4: I think that's will cause some adjustments. Because Nate Atkins
- 7:36Speaker 4: was walking around on the field yesterday. I saw him
- 7:42Speaker 4: and he you know, he did not have a wrap
- 7:43Speaker 4: on the surgically repaired ankle or a boot or anything,
- 7:47Speaker 4: but he and he was walking. So I think they're
- 7:49Speaker 4: still hoping for week two on him. But I think
- 7:52Speaker 4: that means there'll be some roster jockeying, whether that's bringing
- 7:56Speaker 4: somebody up from the practice squad for that elevation. But
- 8:01Speaker 4: I think those are the two things that sort of
- 8:03Speaker 4: impact impact it right now.
- 8:05Speaker 2: Where are we at and Dre Greenlaw going into week one?
- 8:08Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, watching him practice yesterday, I think I
- 8:12Speaker 4: would expect some kind of pitch count in the opener,
- 8:15Speaker 4: but not because he's hurt right now. I think it
- 8:17Speaker 4: would be because of what he's coming back from that
- 8:21Speaker 4: he didn't participate. He hasn't had the wind up of
- 8:24Speaker 4: all the other players since he missed the offseason program,
- 8:28Speaker 4: so I would expect some kind of pitch count.
- 8:31Speaker 3: But that's hard that.
- 8:33Speaker 4: You can hide that in the regular season when you
- 8:35Speaker 4: go to Nickel and do some of your other situational things.
- 8:38Speaker 3: But he looks great moving around.
- 8:41Speaker 4: I think they're only going to regulate him to keep
- 8:44Speaker 4: it that way all right.
- 8:46Speaker 5: When the Broncos take the field and line up in
- 8:48Speaker 5: their first play formation against the Tennessee Titans, who is
- 8:52Speaker 5: the running back that's behind Bonicks, Well.
- 8:55Speaker 4: If they're in the hefty in the hefty formation, which
- 8:59Speaker 4: I think you'll see.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Yesterday out there, Jeff, they were getting heavy, a lot
- 9:04Speaker 1: of tight ends on the field.
- 9:05Speaker 4: Well, Titans play big up front, So I would guess
- 9:09Speaker 4: it's Harvey in that situation, Andy, you know, just because
- 9:11Speaker 4: that's been the early down deal. But I think Dobbins
- 9:16Speaker 4: is going to get more work than we've seen. I
- 9:19Speaker 4: think that's where I come down on that. I think
- 9:21Speaker 4: he's he's too good a player for them to I
- 9:25Speaker 4: think he's more ready to go. I think I should
- 9:27Speaker 4: say right now in terms of reacting to the speed
- 9:31Speaker 4: of of what would be Harvey's first NFL game, and
- 9:36Speaker 4: he has you know, Harvey just needs to be more decisive,
- 9:40Speaker 4: and I'm not sure that your first NFL game is
- 9:44Speaker 4: kind of where you get that over that hurdle. That's
- 9:47Speaker 4: the fastest feeling game most players say they've ever played.
- 9:52Speaker 4: Is that first time you're in an NFL game and
- 9:55Speaker 4: see the speed that's available next to only the first
- 9:59Speaker 4: time he playing a playoff team.
- 10:01Speaker 1: How aggressive do you think Sean Payton is going to
- 10:03Speaker 1: be with the quarterback run game this year with bow nicks,
- 10:06Speaker 1: be it design stuff, RPOs or really his encouragement of
- 10:12Speaker 1: bow tucking and running rather than trying to look for
- 10:14Speaker 1: plays down the field on the scramble.
- 10:17Speaker 4: Yeah, Nate, I don't have a good sense of that yet.
- 10:20Speaker 4: I don't think, because you know that's a lot of
- 10:22Speaker 4: that's improvisational and how effective are you in the scrambled drill.
- 10:27Speaker 4: I think ingram changes the whole lifestyle of a late
- 10:32Speaker 4: in the down passing attack because I think that's an
- 10:35Speaker 4: available target he didn't have last year in the short
- 10:39Speaker 4: to intermediate area. So I think that does change how
- 10:42Speaker 4: often he just fully tucks it and goes. I also
- 10:46Speaker 4: think they look he's already had a back injury last year,
- 10:51Speaker 4: a fracture, and the transferse process of your back and
- 10:55Speaker 4: an ankle surgery after one season. I think they definitely
- 10:59Speaker 4: would like him to be judicious about when he uses
- 11:03Speaker 4: those skills, even though they are.
- 11:06Speaker 3: Effective.
- 11:07Speaker 4: But I like everybody who can run at the quarterback position, eventually,
- 11:12Speaker 4: you've got to make better choices or you're just not
- 11:15Speaker 4: gonna play as many games as you'd like.
- 11:18Speaker 5: Jeff, let's look at the league before we get you
- 11:20Speaker 5: out of here on this Labor Day weekend. Not that
- 11:22Speaker 5: you're going anywhere. You gotta work on Monday, my friend.
- 11:26Speaker 5: All right, this, you know, we've seen what Jerry said
- 11:29Speaker 5: about the trade. Of course, Nate brought it up beginning
- 11:31Speaker 5: of the conversation and how it relates to Nick Benito.
- 11:35Speaker 5: How could this go poorly for the Packers? Because I mean,
- 11:39Speaker 5: this is a generational talent that we're talking about, Nate,
- 11:42Speaker 5: and I came up with the name Reggie White. This
- 11:44Speaker 5: feels a little Reggie White like of getting that kind
- 11:47Speaker 5: of pest rusher to Green Bay. But the what's the
- 11:50Speaker 5: path that maybe this doesn't go well for the Packers
- 11:52Speaker 5: other than he gets hurt and you know the career,
- 11:55Speaker 5: like could he not? Are you worried about this guy?
- 11:58Speaker 5: Was Dallas worried about this guy at old maybe getting
- 12:01Speaker 5: paid and not having the same fire.
- 12:04Speaker 3: I don't think that's the case. I think they just
- 12:06Speaker 3: made a mistake.
- 12:07Speaker 4: I mean, there are two kinds of players, in my opinion,
- 12:12Speaker 4: you should never get rid of in the prime. A
- 12:14Speaker 4: franchise quarterback and a franchise edge rusher. Those are the
- 12:18Speaker 4: two you don't get rid of. Those guys in their prime.
- 12:21Speaker 4: Reggie White is the only other player to have at
- 12:25Speaker 4: least twelve sacks in his first four seasons, like Micah Parsons.
- 12:30Speaker 4: But Reggie wasn't nearly this young when he went to
- 12:33Speaker 4: Green Bay. I mean that was in the early days
- 12:35Speaker 4: of free agency. I'll tell you my beef with this trade,
- 12:40Speaker 4: and honestly, only injury, catastrophic injury is probably the only
- 12:44Speaker 4: way this goes bad for the Packers, or unless your
- 12:48Speaker 4: team wasn't one player away like you think it is,
- 12:51Speaker 4: because you've certainly acted that way in this respect. But
- 12:56Speaker 4: these aren't really first round picks they've shipped, you know,
- 13:00Speaker 4: Green Bay I don't think has had a top ten
- 13:02Speaker 4: draft pick since like two thousand and nine or something
- 13:05Speaker 4: like that.
- 13:05Speaker 3: I mean, it's been forever.
- 13:08Speaker 4: These are going to be picks in the twenties if
- 13:10Speaker 4: things go even remotely average for the Packers in this
- 13:15Speaker 4: and as we've talked a lot on this show, the
- 13:19Speaker 4: first round grades are running out in most drafts at
- 13:22Speaker 4: nineteen eighteen, seventeen. So I don't see any way, honestly,
- 13:30Speaker 4: other than Parsons getting injured, which you don't wish on anybody,
- 13:34Speaker 4: that this works out for Dallas.
- 13:36Speaker 3: I mean, they traded.
- 13:38Speaker 4: An elite, one of the most elite pass rushers in
- 13:42Speaker 4: his prime for yes, a four time Pro bowler, a
- 13:45Speaker 4: three time Pro bowler, but he's thirty and two draft
- 13:48Speaker 4: picks that probably aren't legitimately first round picks and that
- 13:53Speaker 4: you may not be able to package to move up
- 13:55Speaker 4: to get the elite player you're trying to replace who
- 13:59Speaker 4: you just trade it.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Yeah, Jeff and Kenny Clark, by the way, as a
- 14:02Speaker 1: free agent after this upcoming season, I think Green Bay
- 14:04Speaker 1: was gonna let him walk anyway, so they were just like, okay,
- 14:07Speaker 1: go ahead. He also had a sack last year. Now
- 14:11Speaker 1: Dallas needs help stop in the run, so he could
- 14:13Speaker 1: certainly help with that part of the job.
- 14:14Speaker 2: But here's the other part of it. Like you to
- 14:16Speaker 2: kind of this this is what I'm wondering.
- 14:18Speaker 1: About from Dallas's perspective, is it's like Jerry Jones defenders
- 14:22Speaker 1: out there. We'll look at the at the hall and
- 14:24Speaker 1: return and say, no, this is this is great for
- 14:26Speaker 1: Dallas for first round picks in the next two years.
- 14:30Speaker 1: This is a great opportunity to kick start a rebuild
- 14:34Speaker 1: or a reload or whatever you want to call it
- 14:35Speaker 1: in Dallas. And I would say, well, that sounds great
- 14:39Speaker 1: except for the part where you paid Dak Prescott sixty
- 14:42Speaker 1: million dollars a year. You have the most expensive quarterback
- 14:46Speaker 1: in the entire NFL buy a whole five million bucks.
- 14:49Speaker 1: He's making twenty two percent of that team's salary cap. Like,
- 14:53Speaker 1: how do you rebuild with that kind of cap structure
- 14:57Speaker 1: on your team?
- 14:59Speaker 3: You can?
- 15:00Speaker 4: And I would even argue a step further that when
- 15:04Speaker 4: they approached their team building on offense, they approached it
- 15:08Speaker 4: as win now. Yeah, sign CD Lamb, signed Dak Prescott,
- 15:13Speaker 4: pay now, go big, George Pickens. Isn't he not a
- 15:17Speaker 4: free agent after this season? You know, everything on the
- 15:21Speaker 4: offensive side of the ball is win now, do it now.
- 15:26Speaker 4: And then suddenly on the defensive side, you've let your
- 15:30Speaker 4: best players walk in free agency and now you've traded
- 15:34Speaker 4: your absolute best player on your roster. So it's just
- 15:39Speaker 4: an odd team building strategy that doesn't make sense. You
- 15:45Speaker 4: make a call, you got to pick one side or
- 15:47Speaker 4: the other. You can't do it this way. Half on
- 15:51Speaker 4: one side, half on the other side of the ball.
- 15:54Speaker 4: But they've let their best defensive players go for the
- 15:58Speaker 4: most part, and now have traded their best player. Just
- 16:01Speaker 4: doesn't make much sense. But you know, again, I don't
- 16:04Speaker 4: you know, they didn't really call me and asked me
- 16:06Speaker 4: what I thought.
- 16:07Speaker 1: And see, that's that's where Jerry Jones made his mistake
- 16:10Speaker 1: right there. Instead he called and tried to negotiate directly
- 16:12Speaker 1: with Micah and that didn't work out either.
- 16:14Speaker 2: Jeff Flake, by the.
- 16:16Speaker 3: Way, yeah, when I I'm sorry.
- 16:17Speaker 4: When I first started covering the league decades ago, this
- 16:21Speaker 4: was a technique team's usual. Sure, the owner would put
- 16:25Speaker 4: the player in a room, the head coach, the GM
- 16:28Speaker 4: and they would. When I was on the cops beat,
- 16:31Speaker 4: they called it hot box. And when you put a
- 16:33Speaker 4: guy in a room and you try to talk him
- 16:35Speaker 4: into something, Oh, you did it, you know, you did it.
- 16:38Speaker 3: You know that type of thing. When I was a
- 16:40Speaker 3: cops reporter, that's what they called it. But that's that's
- 16:43Speaker 3: what this was.
- 16:44Speaker 4: In my early days on the beat was this was
- 16:47Speaker 4: quite common. So this this is an old technique that
- 16:52Speaker 4: hasn't worked for like twenty years and certainly didn't work
- 16:56Speaker 4: this time.
- 16:58Speaker 1: Just that, like Jeff, they essentially Jerry Jones declared war
- 17:01Speaker 1: on arguably the most powerful agent in the entire NFL,
- 17:04Speaker 1: and not even just the NFL, like entire of all
- 17:06Speaker 1: professional sports. And it's like good organizations have good relationships
- 17:12Speaker 1: with people like David Mullagetta.
- 17:15Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'd have to look this up, but I
- 17:18Speaker 4: apologize to everyone if it's wrong.
- 17:20Speaker 3: But I think he's George Pickens's agent. I think my
- 17:25Speaker 3: memory is that he's George pickens Is agent.
- 17:28Speaker 4: So okay, now that's gonna go pretty well when when
- 17:31Speaker 4: the time.
- 17:31Speaker 3: Comes for that.
- 17:32Speaker 4: But anyway, uh, again, they didn't really ask me, and
- 17:36Speaker 4: that's that's that's.
- 17:37Speaker 2: All I know, and that's their mistake.
- 17:40Speaker 1: Yeah, def leg Weld everybody espn uh Leggy. Well, Well
- 17:44Speaker 1: we won't be here Monday, I don't know. We'll talk
- 17:45Speaker 1: to you Tuesday. We'll book you for Tuesday. You'll do
- 17:48Speaker 1: this show and you'll like it. By the way, Leggy,
- 17:51Speaker 1: I'll do Monday. I'll call in ye call.
- 17:53Speaker 2: We just we won't be here.
- 17:55Speaker 5: But the way, text me, why is nobody answering?
- 17:58Speaker 3: Rupped the line?
- 18:02Speaker 2: Leggy?
- 18:02Speaker 1: Go a line I lou Goalt miner and the line
- 18:04Speaker 1: I open it up in one hour against Western Illinois.
- 18:07Speaker 2: Have a great weekend, man, Yeah, the.
- 18:09Speaker 3: Mighty leather necks look out there.
- 18:10Speaker 2: You get both